From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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Richard Uridge meets author Alan Garner at his home near the Jodrell Bank Telescope and discovers that the medieval hall where he has lived for over 40 years is built on a site that has been occupied by people since the end of the last ice age. Garner says he finds his creativity in the house, tapping into an energy that he is only now beginning to understand.

He takes Richard to several significant parts of the Cheshire countryside near to his home and explains why they have inspired novels such as Thursbitch and Strandloper. They walk an ancient saltway that was a trade link from the Northwich salt mines across to Buxton and Derby, and eventually to London and beyond. This route was travelled by Jack Turner, the real-life character in Thursbitch, Garner's latest book. He was a packman who froze to death in the hills in the 1700s and his death has never been explained.

A spectacular 1500-year-old oak tree was also a significant site for the recreation of the story of William Buckley in Strandloper. Alan Garner was interested in how this Cheshire man - deported to Australia - escaped from the penal colony intending to walk back to Cheshire. Instead he was adopted by a tribe of Aborigines, to whom he became a spiritual leader.

A visit to the 14th century church of St James and St Paul at Marton reveals why this is another place that is a strong source of inspiration for the writer.

Back at Toad Hall (meaning The Old Hall in the Cheshire dialect) he reflects on what it is about Cheshire that has drawn him back and kept him there all his life, and on why it is so central to his work as a novelist.